In ancient Rome, people wrote on papyrus (an early form of paper) with a thin metal rod called a stylus.
In 1565 German-Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner first made a writing instrument made of graphite inserted into a wooden holder. The name graphite is from the Greek word 'graphein', meaning, "to write."
Graphite left a darker mark than lead, but it was so soft and brittle that it needed a holder. At first, sticks of graphite were wrapped in string. Later, the graphite was inserted into wooden sticks that had been hollowed-out by hand! And the wooden pencil was born.
The hardness of a pencil depends on how much clay is keeping the graphite together (clay is used as a binder). The dark pencil mark means the pencil has deposited more particles of graphite onto the paper.
Today we still call the core of a pencil the "lead" even though it is made from nontoxic graphite.
What can we expect pencils to be like in the future?
In ancient Rome, people wrote on papyrus (an early form of paper) with a thin metal rod called a stylus.
In 1565 German-Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner first made a writing instrument made of graphite inserted into a wooden holder. The name graphite is from the Greek word 'graphein', meaning, "to write."
Graphite left a darker mark than lead, but it was so soft and brittle that it needed a holder. At first, sticks of graphite were wrapped in string. Later, the graphite was inserted into wooden sticks that had been hollowed-out by hand! And the wooden pencil was born.
The hardness of a pencil depends on how much clay is keeping the graphite together (clay is used as a binder). The dark pencil mark means the pencil has deposited more particles of graphite onto the paper.
Today we still call the core of a pencil the "lead" even though it is made from nontoxic graphite.
What can we expect pencils to be like in the future?